the senseless part is the taxpayer burden associated not only with the move, but with breaking "Space Force" out as a separate armed service in the first place. Dumb shit and shiny objects. Waiting for my Space Force Academy varsity letter from space camp in '84
There was a need to break it out, as the part of the Air Force who handled those missions/tasks was getting under funded by the Air Force in favor of new fighters. They had to be spun out so they could get the budget to do the work. If the AF weren't so political, it wouldn't need to be done.
Political as in: you ever wonder why AF fighters kinda sucked in the early Cold War, but our bombers ruled? Or why our fighters got really good after Vietnam, while our bombers haven't changed? Air Force politics. Its why they keep trying to kill the A-10
Army Air Force, RETVRN that'll show em
No joke, its why the Army still has planes and has armed helicopters. The Air Force didn't want to do it, as they believed (at the time) that heavy bombers could do the job. The Army learned this the hard way in Korea when the AF had no CAS to give them, and
they had to rely on the Marines for CAS, which they really didn't like. The Marines invented CAS in Haiti in the 1910s. The Air Force gets focused on one thing, and that one thing dominates the budget and strategic mindset and planning. Space Force had to be spun out unfortunately
A ham sandwich killed Mama CAS
I think its spelled with 2 "S", as in Cass